


The Time Cat

by DragonFawns



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: "the doctor's fursona is a cat" -missy, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Cat AU, Feline AU, Fluff, Gen, Theta - Freeform, Theta Sigma - Freeform, Theta the Time Cat, animagus au, shapeshifter!Twelve, twissy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 16:07:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11581488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonFawns/pseuds/DragonFawns
Summary: "In the beginning, she found it cute, if not slightly bemusing. As time progressed, she found it annoying. It always appeared at inconvenient times, and she could’ve sworn it was trying to irritate her on purpose. Now she was just dead-set on discovering the little demon’s home, purpose be damned, to shout at whoever was in charge of keeping it under control.You might be wondering what in the universe could get on Bill’s nerves enough to make her doubt her sanity.The answer is a large, smug, silver tabby cat with an absolutely horrifying sweet tooth and a penchant for troublemaking. "Alternate Universe: Every Time Lord has the ability to shape-shift at will into an animagus-like form. When they regenerate, the animal's appearance may change, but the species always stays the same. Basically, the Doctor uses this ability to confuse the hell out of his companions. Bill is determined to get to the bottom of the troublemaking cat mystery.





	1. The Paper Stealer

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first multi-chapter story, so I hope you enjoy it! Any comments and critiques would be greatly appreciated.

Bill Potts knew she was many things, but never considered crazy to be one of them. A time traveler for sure, and probably the least heterosexual person to ever walk the Earth, but she was completely above hallucinations. Sure, she once fell in love with a sentient puddle, and sure, she sometimes talked to an apparition of her mother to help cope with the stress of life, and well… okay, maybe an argument could be made for the craziness. But she refused to believe what she kept seeing was all in her head, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it. 

In the beginning, she found it cute, if not slightly bemusing. As time progressed, she found it annoying. It always appeared at inconvenient times, and she could’ve sworn it was trying to irritate her on purpose. Now she was just dead-set on discovering the little demon’s home, purpose be damned, to shout at whoever was in charge of keeping it under control. Each time she tried to follow it, it would always disappear after rounding a corner, or the Doctor would come distract her with the promise of an exciting new world. 

You might be wondering what in the universe could get on Bill’s nerves enough to make her doubt her sanity. 

The answer is a large, smug, silver tabby cat (a Maine Coon to be exact), with an absolutely horrifying sweet tooth and a penchant for troublemaking.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The first time she encountered the cat, she had been walking through the University to the Doctor’s office. His office was situated at the end of a seldom-used hallway in a quiet wing of the University; the rest of the rooms in the corridor being either old storage rooms or empty and locked. The inside seemed impossibly large, with high floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a handful of doors leading to other rooms that logically couldn’t fit in the small building corner. Bill could only assume the Doctor had used Time Lord technology to manipulate the small space in ways she couldn’t comprehend. 

She had been pondering this exact subject while on her way to his office, carrying a thick packet of typed papers. After Bill had cracked her helmet and nearly drowned in an underwater current when they visited an ocean planet, the Doctor assigned her a 10 page essay on the importance of diving safety. Needless to say, she wasn’t completely happy about it, and fully expected to get reprimanded for the sarcastic bits of her essay. Still, seeing the beautiful underwater cities had been worth typing 10 pages and nearly dying. Bill gave a small smile, looking up at the ceiling while reflecting on the adventure. 

It quickly vanished when she tripped over something with a squawk of surprise. Limbs splaying out to catch herself, the carefully stapled packet of papers went flying a few feet away from her. Looking around frantically to see what had tripped her, she relaxed when her gaze lighted upon the silver tabby. 

“Aww. Hey there, little guy,” she cooed at the cat, pulling herself into a sitting position. It sneezed in response, and pulled its long, fluffy tail around its paws with an air of disdain. “How’d you get in here anyways?” The cat recoiled slightly from her extended hand, choosing instead to walk over to her fallen paper. Sniffing at it, the cat looked back at Bill, and let out a loud meow. Before she could react, the cat grasped the stapled corner of the essay in his mouth, and dashed down the corridor. 

“Hey! No, come back here, I need that!” Bill shouted, springing to her feet in pursuit of the feline. Reaching the Doctor’s door at the end of the hallway, the cat was nowhere to be seen. She entered without knocking, seeing the Doctor sitting nonchalantly at his desk, adjusting the cuffs of his shirt. 

“Doctor! Have you seen-“ she started, before the Time Lord interrupted her, energetically jumping up from his chair with the beginnings of a grin on his face. 

“Bill! Just in time, I need your help with something.” He clapped his hands once, walking around to the front of his desk. Bill looked on with a frustrated expression, mouth hanging slightly open as she tried to find an opening to speak. “Small trading outpost on a planet about 1700 years in the future, broadcasting a distress signal. Something about bat-creatures and the security guards being held hostage. The message wasn’t translated well, but from what I gathered, it sounds pretty dire.”

“But-“ she started again.

“No buts!” He responded, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the TARDIS with an expectant expression. “Come on!” 

Reluctantly, she let him pull her inside the TARDIS. There was no stopping the Doctor once he was set on something, and surely she could ask him about the cat afterwards. 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Three hours later, they were both sprinting inside the TARDIS and slamming the doors behind them. Outside, the whoops and cheers of locals almost drowned out the festive music. The Doctor and Bill both pulled woven wreaths of flowers from their heads while panting from the run, and removed the leafy vines that were wrapped around their arms. Bill thew hers to the floor in disgust, the Doctor following suit with slightly less aggression, but still pointedly ignoring her questioning eyes. He bounded towards the TARDIS console, flipping levers and switches to send them back to his office.

“Bat creatures? Hostages?” She asked loudly to his back as she followed him in circles around the console. “Are you sure you’re not still blind? What the hell was that? Because I think what just happened was almost way more horrifying than any weird bat kidnappings!”

The Doctor turned to her, with an uncomfortable expression on his face. He leaned against the console for support, tension clear in his stiff-backed posture and upturned eyebrows. “How was I supposed to know the TARDIS translated the message incorrectly?” He glared up at the console’s rotating rings of metal, etched carefully with circles of High Gallifreyan. “Thanks for that, by the way. Very funny.” 

The TARDIS hummed and dimmed her lights in response. “Oh, yeah, I’m sure it was an accident!” He scoffed, sarcasm dripping from his voice. He muttered a curse in Gallifreyan, and stumbled when the TARDIS gave an indignant lurch. He cast another icy glare at the console. “You’ve got to stop almost getting me married to my friends. We’ve talked about this!”

“What, are you space-married to like, fifteen women or something?” Bill said with widened eyes and an incredulous laugh. “Does this happen often?”

“You’d be surprised,” the Doctor replied dryly. 

They stared at each other for a moment, before Bill huffed a laugh. The tension broke, and they shared a relieved smile. 

“And what is it with you humans adding space to the front of everything?” The Doctor said, eyebrows switching back to their sarcastic attack mode. He returned his attention to the console, flipping a lever to ensure the TARDIS’s safe materialization. “Space-man, space-married, space-alien, I just don’t get it. Technically, everything’s from space. You’re all space-people! Everything is space-everything.” 

Bill shrugged, and then turned towards the Doctor with an expression of realization. “Oh, I meant to ask you earlier before all of this. Did you… see a silver tabby cat in your office? O-or in the hallway outside your office? Anywhere near your office, really.”

The Doctor blinked at her, expression blank. “Well, what a completely unrelated and random question that is. No, I haven’t seen a cat, at least not recently. Why…?”

“Oh, no reason.” She also blinked. “Never mind.” 

The TARDIS wheezed, signaling their arrival at the Doctor’s office and preventing them from continuing the conversation further. Exchanging another smile, they both stepped towards the doors and stepped into the quiet afternoon atmosphere of the large room. The Doctor strode to his desk, shuffling about in a stack of papers before selecting a stapled packet with a red “98%” scrawled across the top. 

He turned and handed it to Bill with a grin. “Here’s your paper on diving safety. I thought it was some of you best work, well done.” While Bill had expected to get points off for her sarcastic remarks, the Doctor had praised them in his red-inked comments. Underlined at the bottom of the paper was a sentence insulting the makers of diving helmet locks, and written in red scrawl next to it was an equally rude agreement. 

Bill accepted the paper with a confused frown, all thoughts of almost getting married to her paternal figure chucked out the window. She shuffled through it and briefly glanced at the pen marks before looking up at him in bewilderment. “Doctor, how did you get this? I never gave it to you.”

“Ah, well, I’m sure you did. I found it on my desk, you must’ve left it there earlier,” he said. For a second, Bill could’ve sworn there was a mischievous glint in his eyes. 

“I only printed it a few hours ago; there’s no way you could’ve had time to grade this already!” 

“Bill, I’m a Time Lord. I have superior physiology. I once read the entire Harry Potter series in five minutes.” The Doctor paused to contemplate that statement. “I was having a slow day."

He placed his hands on her shoulders and started herded her towards the door. “Anyways, well done, but you should probably get going now. You’ve got boring student stuff to do. Go on a date; go text someone or something!” 

“But, Doctor-!” The door slammed shut in front of Bill. She sighed, shaking her head. “Bloody ’superior' Time Lord could’ve at least given me a lift home.”


	2. Cocoa Thief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On a stormy morning, Bill is visited by the elusive double-whammy cocoa thief.

The second time Bill encountered the cat, she was sitting in the University’s vast library on a cloudy weekend. It was early in the morning, before most of the students were even awake. There were a few other people sat scattered in little reading nooks and window ledges, preparing for early-morning lectures or leaving after late-night study sessions. Bill relaxed in one of these reading nooks; a small recessed corner between two windows. The walls were lined with books, and a medium-sized plush couch covered in pillows sat against one side, sheltered from the view of outsiders. Bill was curled into the corner of the sofa with a thick novel on her lap. Next to her, on an ornate side table, was a steaming mug of hot cocoa. A large marshmallow slowly melted into the warm liquid. 

It was a stormy day, so the dawn sunlight was only a faint blue glow outside the tall, curtained windows. Lightning briefly lit up the sky, creating a false illusion of daylight. Thunder rumbled in the distance as a spattering of raindrops hit the windowpanes. Somewhere outside, a crow gave a harsh cry of protest before taking off into the storm-charged air. 

Bill shivered, pulling her feet up onto the couch next to her. She’d hated thunderstorms for as far back as she could remember, and to this day she still couldn’t stand to be alone when it was raining. She’d considered going to the Doctor, but thought it wouldn’t really be polite appearing at someone’s door at 5:30 in the morning, regardless of his nonexistent sleep schedule. Instead, she had sought out the library’s comforting ambiance, feeling slightly more secure in the presence of other University students. Still, the thunder made a cold chill run down the back of her neck. She tried to focus on her book, but was unable to concentrate longer than a single paragraph at a time.

“Ugh, this is useless,” she protested, shutting the book and setting it on the side table. 

Sighing, Bill lowered her head and pressed her fingers to her temples. She remained in this position for a few moments until she felt something feather-soft brush against her arm. Flinching, she turned towards the source of the contact, relaxing slightly when she saw a familiar silver tabby next to her. 

“You again!” Bill questioned crossly. “Who’s cat are you, anyways?”

Impossibly, the cat gave her an indignant glance, as if saying “Stupid human, no one owns me.” He nudged her arm with his nose, meeting her eyes again with an enquiring glance. 

Bill laughed. “For a cat, you sure have some expressive eyebrows.” 

She reached over to pet the tabby, and he didn’t recoil this time, but didn’t look quite happy either. He flattened his ears, ducking away after a few moments. The quick movement of his head made the tag on his collar produce a small, metal tinkling noise. Bill noticed, and reached slowly towards the flat, golden disc. The silver cat stayed still, eyeing the progression of her hand towards his neck with guarded caution. 

“Theta?” Bill read the name on the collar, turning it over to see no further information. “That’s your name?”

Theta gave a small mew of confirmation, flicking his tail before wrapping it elegantly around his paws. 

“That’s an odd name for a cat,” Bill chuckled, reaching over to take a sip from her mug of cocoa. It was less warm than before, and the marshmallow still rested on the top. Theta seemed to take notice of this, his eyes following the floating white cube as Bill brought the cup down to rest between her hands in her lap. Sniffing, he stepped delicately towards Bill, butting his head against her arm. 

“What, now are you okay with attention?” She lifted her arm to pet Theta, giving him the perfect opportunity to spring into her lap. 

Bill gave an indignant splutter, arms moving to prevent her from spilling the cocoa. With a precise movement, the silver tabby stuck his muzzle into the mug, emerging triumphantly with the marshmallow clutched tightly in his mouth. 

“Hey! What the hell?” She said loudly, staring at the cat with confused irritation. Theta sprang off of Bill’s lap, trotting away victoriously, no doubt about to consume his prize. The cat’s human victim sat in stunned silence as she processed the situation. She started laughing, still slightly shocked at the robbery that just took place. 

“That little menace is a complete kleptomaniac,” she said to herself, shaking her head. “What kind of cat likes marshmallows?”

“Quite a few, actually,” said a voice from around the corner. The Doctor stepped into the reading nook with a sly smile. He wore his burgundy velvet jacket over a dark jumper full of holes. Underneath his jumper was a white t-shirt, giving the combination a starry look. “You’re up quite early. What are you doing here, Bill?” 

“Me?” she asked incredulously. “What are you doing here? Where did you even come from? And did you see that cat? You had to ‘ave seen him this time.”

“I always come to the library in the mornings.” He replied with a shrug, unbuttoning his jacket and putting his hands in his pockets. Bill noticed that he ignored the question about the cat, and filed it away to reflect upon later. “I’ve never seen you here this early before. Why’re you here?”

“I don’t like storms,” she said with an embarrassed frown, before retorting, “Do you make it a habit of lurking around in the shadows and then surprising people like some weird, tall, space-vampire?”

He ignored that question as well. “Why’re you scared of storms? They’re a natural occurrence. Well, usually they are.” 

“They make me nervous.” She replied quickly. “But back up a second, did you see the cat that ran out of here about ten seconds before you appeared out of nowhere? There’s no way you didn’t see it!” 

“Bill, I haven’t seen a cat. If you’re nervous, perhaps you’re just imagining it.” The Doctor looked away from her, hiding the glimmer of amusement in his eye. 

“I swear to god, Doctor, if you have something to do with that cat stealing my things, I’ll kill you.” Bill snarked, fixing him with a look of fierce annoyance. “Is he like your little helper or something? Do Time Lords have those?” 

“Well, I’ve got Nardole, I’m sure he counts for something,” The Doctor replied, not hiding his amusement this time. He reached over to the side table and picked up her half-empty mug of cocoa. Bill made a noise of protest as he raised it to his mouth and took a sip. “And the last time you tried to kill me, it really didn’t work out."

The Doctor gave her a last smile before sauntering out of the corner, taking her mug of cocoa with him. 

“You too? What the hell?” Bill shouted after him. 

“Language!” came the distant, laughing reply. 

Shaking her head in exasperation, Bill knew there was something the Doctor wasn’t telling her about that cat. He had acted less grumpy than usual, and knowing him, that meant he wasn’t being completely honest. Laying back on the sofa with a sigh, she closed her eyes. With any luck, the little annoyance of a cat would soon leave her alone. 

As usual, she was wrong.

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a simple sketch of Theta's appearance: http://imgur.com/7YVp9zk 
> 
> You can also just google search "silver tabby maine coon" for more examples. If anyone decides to draw Theta, please send it to me, and I'll feature it in the next chapter!


End file.
